


Glittering Bright

by frith_in_thorns



Category: Warehouse 13
Genre: Bonfire Night, Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Unexpected Artifacts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-03
Updated: 2014-04-03
Packaged: 2018-01-17 23:57:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,528
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1407406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frith_in_thorns/pseuds/frith_in_thorns
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having completed an assignment in England, Helena persuades Myka to come on a date to the local bonfire night celebration with the promise of toffee apples, fireworks, and almost certainly no rogue Artifacts...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Glittering Bright

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosmic_llin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmic_llin/gifts).



> Written for cosmic_llin as part of the Holiday Aisle fic exchange, for the prompt of Bonfire Night.

The dark November air was thick with the smell of woodsmoke, and the snap-crackle of the bonfire as it spat up sparks was audible even over the noise of the crowd.

Myka hadn't been expecting a date with Helena to take place in a damp English field, although on balance it was so far a lot more normal than most of the things they'd done together. At least no one was dying, or being turned into lamps, or becoming irresistibly attractive to blackbirds. For example.

"Are you having fun?" Helena asked, a trifle anxiously. Like Myka, she was wrapped up against the cold in a thick coat and a knitted hat and scarf. 

"How sure are we that the Guy isn't a real person?" Myka asked, and then laughed at the expression on Helena's face. "Relax! Yes, I'm having fun. It's nice to be at an event like this and not worrying about scanning the crowd for Artifacts."

Helena smiled, reassured. "I love Bonfire Night," she said. "The fire… the crowds… Ooh, toffee apples!"

She had vanished into a knot of people almost before Myka could realise what had caught her attention, but reappeared shortly with a pair of toffee-coated apples on sticks, looking thoroughly pleased with herself. "I haven't had one of these for _years_ ," she said. "Do you want the other? I'll eat it for you if not."

"Give it here," Myka said, and snatched the unlicked one from her quickly. "You can be such a child."

"I'm over a hundred years old," Helena retorted. " _You're_ the child."

"I'm also the senior field agent," Myka said. "Watch out or I'll give you a bad report."

"I was a field agent before you were _born_ ," Helena muttered, sulkily. 

It was a good moment for the firework display to provide a distraction, and on cue rockets began to burst in gold and red against the black sky.

"Myka," Helena said.

She turned her head from the colours. "Yeah?"

Helena slipped her arm around Myka's shoulders and kissed her. Myka tasted sugar and apples on her lips, and returned the sticky-sweet kiss, closing her eyes on the _bang_ and _crack_ of the fireworks, and the chorus of _oooooh_ and _aaaaaaaah_ from the enthralled crowd.

The _very_ enthralled crowd. All chorusing identically.

"Don't open your eyes," Myka said, against Helena's mouth. "Does there seem something wrong about the noise to you?"

Helena tensed for a moment, listening, and then groaned. "This was supposed to be a _date_. Why do we always bring work home with us?" She was silent for a moment. "I think if we don't look up we're okay."

Myka opened her eyes cautiously, being careful to keep her eyes from lifting to the still-exploding fireworks above them. The people around them were all staring fixedly at the sky, not one of them moving expect to mouth expressions of awe in unsettling unison.

"The display's being lit behind the bonfire," Helena said. She grabbed Myka by her gloved hand. "Come on!"

Myka tossed aside her toffee apple as she ran with Helena over the uneven wet grass. She tried to watch the ground — it would be terribly anticlimactic if one of them broke their ankle by tripping in a rabbit hole. Despite their best efforts they knocked against several frozen bystanders, but they just swayed slightly and returned to their transfixed positions. 

"Just _once_ I'd like this sort of thing not to happen," she panted.

Helena grinned at her. "Liar. You love it."

"I _don't_ ," Myka protested. She ducked under the rope separating the crowd from the towering bonfire, and cast an anxious look up at the Guy, in case it was about to do something like leap down to attack. But it had mostly disintegrated by now, and seemed in any case to be nothing more than the straw-stuffed cloth it appeared.

A stray rocket dipped down to explode in her sightline. For a moment, Myka lost all awareness of where she was; her consciousness scattering in a spray of green sparks… 

…but Helena put a hand on the back of her head and forced it downwards so that all Myka could see was her face. Awareness of where she was returned. "I'm okay," she said. 

"Good," Helena said, and gave her cheek a quick kiss as they both turned.

The unlit fireworks were laid out in front of them. A man in a hi-vis jacket was bending down to light another.

"Freeze!" Myka shouted, drawing her tesla in the same instant. "Don't light another firework!"

The man glanced behind him, yelped, and hopped backwards like a startled rabbit. "Don't shoot me!" he squeaked.

"What are you doing to these people?" Helena asked.

"What? Nothing!" He looked genuinely terrified. "I'm just here from the Council to light the display!"

"I think he's telling the truth," Myka said. She cautiously lowered the tesla.

"What's that in your hand?" Helena asked.

He opened his fingers. "Just my lighter. It's from my Grandpa."

"What's your name?" Myka asked.

"It's Jeremy, Jeremy Slater. Please, don't hurt me!"

"We're not going to hurt you," Myka promised, trying to sound reassuring. "We're from the Secret Service. I'm afraid we're going to have to confiscate that lighter."

"Do you have to?" Jeremy asked, nervously.

"I'm afraid so," Helena said. "It's causing the fireworks to behave in an unsafe manner. Regulations demand it." At Myka's look she added in a whisper, "What? He's a council worker."

Indeed, the mention of regulations seemed to calm Jeremy, who seemed not to be the sort of person who ever questioned authority. "I knew I should have used the proper taper to light them," he said. "I'm sorry!"

"Don't worry about it." Helena said, and paused. "Um, Myka, you don't happen to have any anti-static bags on you, do you?"

Myka was already unfolding one from an inner pocket. "I never go anywhere without them anymore," she said, and held it out. "Jeremy, drop the lighter in here and stand well back."

With obvious trepidation, Jeremy did so. The shower of sparks as Myka hastily sealed the bag made him shriek and jump again. 

Behind them, the eery unison of the crowd abruptly broke up into the more normal sort of noise made by a large group of people — loud and refreshingly incoherent.

Helena sighed loudly. "Day saved," she said. "Let me guess, your grandpa was the stage hypnotist Ralph Slater?"

Jeremy nodded. "Am I in trouble?" he asked, nervously. That question was obviously far more concerning than wondering how Helena was able to guess such an obscure fact.

"Not at all," Myka assured him. "In fact, if you have that regulation taper around, you can continue lighting the rest of the firework display."

Jeremy looked hugely relieved. "I'll do that," he said. "But I have to wait until you're back behind the safety line."

"I think we can do that," Myka said.

"You take care now," Helena added, with a grin.

They walked back around the bonfire, more carefully this time. The first non-hypnotic rocket burst in the black sky the instant they dropped the rope back in place.

"Oooh, fireworks," Helena said, exactly as if the last few minutes hadn't happened. She had also, Myka noticed, managed to keep hold of her toffee apple throughout the action. "Let's get back a bit, so we can see them better."

The crowd this time was slightly more resistant to being pushed through, but they made it over to one side. Myka tilted her head up to watch the display better, leaning against Helena's shoulder. "Which are your favourite?" she asked, as rockets rained down red and blue sparks.

"The silver ones that wriggle like fish," Helena said, after due consideration. "Do you want a bite of my toffee apple?"

"Oh, go on then." She didn't move her head as Helena lifted the apple somewhat inexpertly to her mouth, but even so by the time she managed to take a bite there was distinct stickiness on her lips and cheeks. She couldn't even complain, as the toffee had temporarily stuck her teeth together.

"I love bonfire night," Helena said. She wrapped her arm tight around Myka's stomach. "And you."

Myka twisted herself around. "I love you too," she said, and proceeded to prove it with kisses. Helena's face was soon as sticky as hers. "You take me on all the best dates."

"Despite the rogue Artifact?" Helena asked.

"Definitely," Myka assured her, and kissed her again. "The evening just wouldn't feel right otherwise."

The fireworks finished in a spray of gold sparks, falling from the sky to meet the ones leaping up from the bonfire. Myka leaned away so that they could both join in with the enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

"So what now?" she asked. "Do we leave now?"

"Of course not!" Helena said, sounding mildly indignant. "We should stick around to make sure there aren't any ongoing ill effects."

"That's a very important point," Myka agreed, and settled back into Helena's arms. "So what are you really after?"

She couldn't see Helena's fire-lit grin, but she could picture it perfectly well. "We haven't had any sparklers yet!"


End file.
